Random Thoughts on Beauty

I do wear hair extensions once in a while. Sometimes someone will comment on how good my hair looks and I'll say "Thanks, I bought it at the beauty store across the street". But juzi someone at work told me about a documentary that was made recently about 100% Indian hair. I think it's usually very expensive to wear that 100% human hair. Apparently, the Hindu women whose hair is sold normally shave it as a form of religious devotion, halafu the monks sell it to Hollywood and the rest of the beauty industry. Ati asked if they would sell their hair, the women said hapana, and would not cut it if they knew it ends up in the beauty industry. I've never worn any human hair, but that thing is giving me a complex. I think the hair dye (most prefer to call it highlighter, as in it's not meant to cover up greying hair, but to highlight natural hair colour) industry is huge for white women, but I have no idea where their 100% human hair extensions come from. How come most of the beauty stores are owned by Asians. Maybe the answer is globalization.

Nature-we need to be proud of our natural/native looks right? I love that, it's all good. But as far as hair goes, it's not as easy for me. My natural hair is kiasi hard to keep neat, leaving me with the option to wear braids, cornrows, or dreadlocks to have a semblance of nature. Or go bald. Braids and cornrows are a bit expensive to keep up with. Dreadlocks? I hear it costs like $3 a month to keep those neat, but I don't want to lock myself in one look till I cut my hair. I don't have the shape of head that'd look cool when bald either. So I alternate between braids, cornrows and chemically straightened hair. Not the most authentic African hair, for all my pride.
Make-up. It's meant to enhance the beauty one already has? I've never seen a black woman blush, why do black women wear blush?

Hair and scalp lotion, face lotion, lip balm, hand and body lotion, moisturizer, and whatever for the feet-Ifound a product that rolls all these into one-shea butter. The Burkinabe (if that's what we call people from Burkina Faso) woman who sold it to me claimed to be 55 but looked like 35 so it must work. So far it's working for me.

Weight-now that. Funny thing to note that men in Kenya (at least where I come from and especially my cousins) prefer(ed?) larger women, but huku hivi every woman is trying to shed weight.

African models-they are very beautiful. I wonder if Alek Wek would still be beautiful if she was not 'discovered' in London. Say, by African standards. Better still, I wonder what are or were the African standards of beauty.